During the summer, soprano pipistrelle females form maternity colonies where they give birth to a single young in June or early July. For three or four weeks the young are fed solely on their mother’s milk. After about four weeks the young are able to fly and at six weeks they are able to forage for themselves.

Soprano pipistrelle male bats usually roost singly or in small groups through the summer months. During the main mating period from July to early September, males defend individual territories as mating roosts, attracting females by making repeated ‘songflights’ around their roost and singing social calls.

Soprano pipistrelles usually feed in wetland habitats, for example over lakes and rivers, and also around woodland edge, tree lines or hedgerows, and in suburban gardens and parks.

They generally emerge from their roost around 20 minutes after sunset and fly 2-10m above ground level searching for their insect prey, which they catch and eat on the wing by ‘aerial hawking’. Soprano pipistrelles appear to be more selective in their habitat use than the more generalist common pipistrelle.

Summer roosts of both common and soprano pipistrelles are usually found in crevices around the outside of often newer buildings, such as behind hanging tiles, soffit and barge or eaves boarding, between roofing felt and roof tiles or in cavity walls.

This species also roosts in tree holes and crevices, and also in bat boxes. Summer roosts of soprano pipistrelle support colonies of an average size of 200 bats, but they can be even larger with numbers reaching several hundred to over a thousand bats.

In winter soprano pipistrelles are found singly or in small numbers in crevices of buildings and trees, and also in bat boxes. They are often found in relatively exposed locations and rarely underground.

Soprano pipistrelle feeds mainly on small flies, particularly midges and mosquitoes that are associated with water.